Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War holds a unique distinction as the first turn-based 4X strategy game set in the 40K universe, bringing the 'explore, expand, exploit, exterminate' template of Civilization to a planet where diplomacy is essentially impossible. Developed by Proxy Studios, it drops multiple factions onto the death world of Gladius Prime, a planet whose reawakening Necrons and lethal wildlife make every tile a threat.
War without peace
Gladius deliberately strips out the diplomacy and trade that define most 4X games — in the 41st Millennium, there is only war — so the entire design bends toward relentless military expansion. Players research technologies, found cities, and manage resources purely in service of raising armies, with the Orks, Space Marines, Astra Militarum, and others each playing to wildly different rhythms, from the Orks growing stronger the more they fight to the Necrons slowly awakening dormant legions.
An expanding roster
Launching with four factions, Gladius grew across years of DLC to include a broad cross-section of the setting — Tyranids, Eldar, Chaos, Tau, Adeptus Mechanicus, and more — each a full asymmetric civilisation with unique units and mechanics. That steady expansion turned it into one of the most faction-complete strategy games in the catalogue.
Reception
Reviews praised Gladius for successfully marrying 4X structure to the setting's all-consuming militarism, even as some noted the loss of diplomacy narrowed the strategic palette. For players who wanted to command a whole faction's rise on a single doomed world rather than a single squad, it filled a niche nothing else in the 40K library quite matched.
Trailers & gameplay
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Beyond the tabletop
